


Scent of Tea on the Train

by thatdragonchic



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, claudia and stiles talk, claudias ghost, plot with angst, stiles admitting things, stiles and claudia memories, stiles crying, stiles stilinski misses his mom, stiles talks about donovan, stiles tells his mom about supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 17:38:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6817459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatdragonchic/pseuds/thatdragonchic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles and Claudia have a talk in a train and he's desperate to tell her everything before she disappears</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scent of Tea on the Train

**Author's Note:**

> leave comments!

The train rattled forward as steam from the cup rose into the air, tea. He remembered the train ride, the old steam train they’d took for hecks, when he was six and how his mother wore a sunhat with flowers adorning the right side, tilted just so it covered her right eye, hair parted beneath it, curled at the ends and pulled to the right with the hat. She looked beautiful, especially with the cotton sundress she’d worn, her eyes glittering as she stirs her sugar into her tea, sighing softly into the soft air and she looks up at him and he doesn’t feel six anymore- he feels full fledged and well on eighteen, he looks down at himself and he is eighteen, he looks eighteen and he looks back at his mother and she’s still twenty-seven and beautiful and unharmed by her impending illness, not fully, not yet. She’s clean. She’s beautiful. She’s pure. 

She looks back at him and his heart stops, she laughs. “Stiles honey, close your mouth- you don’t wanna catch flies do you?” 

“I… No,” Stiles replies perplexed and Claudia smiles warmly. “I… you’re here.”

“And where else would I be? We boarded this train together, didn’t we?” Claudia asks and he nods, his heart aching and oozing with all sorts of joy, all sorts of estrangement and he wonders if she knows this is just his dream, and he wonders if she can see him the way he sees himself. 

“I… I don’t know. I missed you.” He must sound crazy to her and she throws her head back and laughs beautiful laughter. “No momma you don’t understand- I have so much to tell you.” 

“You’re a silly boy, you know that don’t you? I’ve always been here.”

“I can’t see you.”

“You see me now don’t you.”

“Not when I wake up.”

“You’re awake now.” 

“Am I?”

“Your eyes seem open to me, love.”

“Momma  _ please,”  _ Stiles finds himself begging and he wonders if she gets it, her expression softens. “I need to tell you everything before you’re gone again.”

“Okay, Okay. Tell me what’s bugging you so much.”

“I… Scott turns into a werewolf.” 

“What?” 

“Scott turns into a werewolf and all this  sh- stuff happens with Peter Hale and Derek Hale and then this alpha pack comes alongside this dark druid lady and she- she takes Dad!” 

“Stiles slow down, what are you talking about?”

“Everything at home, Momma, please you have to listen to me,” Stiles pleads, tears pooling in his eyes as if he could wake up any moment and not have the chance to tell her everything. 

“Stiles my love what’s wrong-?” 

“I just need to tell you,  _ please _ .” 

“Then by all means, keep talking,” she encourages, softening a bit as she watches her son with perplexity. What’s gotten into him? 

“Dad, dad he gets taken by the dark druid lady and she won’t tell us where he is, so to save him I have to drown to find the nematon to find him- the nematon is a giant magical tree by the way- and then Deaton has this whole speech about emotional tethers or something and  _ Lydia Freaking Martin is connected to me  _ by some supernatural connection. And okay I find the nematon and I save Dad but then the dying thing, like when I drowned left this door in my mind open, making vulnerable and I got possessed!”

“Possessed!” Claudia mimicks, watching him with bright eyes, as if he was telling her some sort of adventure story.

“Momma I’m serious!” Stiles laughs and she laughs too, it’s as if they are the only ones on the train, though when he looks around he realizes  _ they are  _ the only ones on the train. They’re laughing and he’s happy and it’s just him and his mother. “I was possessed momma, by this evil spirit that causes chaos and it wanted me to kill everyone- to kill myself.”

“Stiles…” Her voice softens and Claudia looks wounded. “You don’t-”

“Just hear me out mommy. He… He caused all this trouble, he killed one of our best friends and then… we got rid of him. I wanted nothing more than to be dead, I had so much wrong, i’d hurt everyone and… I just wouldn’t talk to anybody for months. But then this girl Malia and I started dating and I never really liked her, I feel bad because really I guess… I kind of took advantage of her, she was sort of distraction-”

“You took advantage of that poor girl? And how did she feel about that?”

“Honestly…. I think at first she took advantage of  _ me.  _ It’s kind of hard to explain but I lost my virginity to her and… it was weird. Everything was weird. But anyway’s now we’re together and Derek Hale is gone and we go to find him in Mexico. So we go and it’s me and Lydia and I’m so happy, we’re friends, we’ve been friends but I can’t have her and I didn’t think she liked me. But then I’m also so afraid, I just want to find Derek, we want to find Derek and he’s not there. So now we’re taking on assassins and a deadpool and all this other crap and then it’s over and senior year comes and-” 

Stiles cuts off he’s afraid of what to tell his mother, he’s afraid to talk about Theo, about Donovan. He’s afraid she’ll hate him. She would deem him unworthy, scoff at him, hurt him, yell at hiim. 

“Stiles… Stiles honey, you okay?”

“I don’t want you to hate me.”

“I could never hate you.”

“Y-You don’t know that.”

“Does your father know?” 

“N-No.”

“Oh.” Claudia stops, she leans back and she watches him before leaning forward and taking his larger hand, holding it between both of hers. “Well it doesn’t matter, I will always believe you Stiles, you’re my only son. I can’t hate you.”

“That kid Theo, he left when we were ten and… And he comes back and I know he’s different but nobody believes me, Momma I’m telling you he’s a bad man. I know he is, but nobody believes me. And… and he sends Donovan after me… h-he- I- I just wanted to escape and I… He tried to kill me, I didn’t know what to do, He was gonna kill me so I pulled this hook and the beams fell and he-” 

Stiles intakes a breath, he can’t say it and Claudia squeezes his hand. “He dies?” she finishes in a whisper and Stiles nods slowly, carefully and Claudia watches him, but before she can answer it’s all over. The train turns to black, the scent of tea is gone, he wakes up to the heavy covers surrounding his mattress and he blinks, not very awake but also not very asleep. He curls up into himself and he can’t bring himself to move. Can’t bring himself to turn off the alarm clock. Can’t bring himself to leave the bed. He can’t do it, he can’t do it. He just wants to stay here, lazily turning he shuts the alarm clock off and grabs his phone and calls. 

“Morning, this uh, This is Stiles Stilinski, I just wanted to call to say I’m sick and won’t be coming into school today. Uhm… yeah I just have a high fever and a nauseous stomach. Alright, alright thanks…” Stiles trails off before hanging up and curling into the bed. Lying there, he curls up and he breaks into a sob, the Sheriff stopping at the door to hear it and his heart shatters- he wonders what Stiles is hiding and he wishes he could fix it. He wishes he could have back the small toddler with hopeful eyes and a smile so bright it outdid the sun, but yet, Stiles never seemed to smile anymore and when he did it wasn’t truthful and when he thought nobody was looking, he’d cry himself until he had no energy. 

And Claudia, the spirit that she was, lingers with him just a bit longer, her heart tearing out of her nonexistant chest and the gentle caress of the wind from the window is her fingers carding through his hair and she kisses his head ever so soft as he cries. 

_ I could never hate you Stiles, it wasn’t your fault.  _


End file.
